


your people shall be my people, and your God my God

by Claw512



Series: Lucas is an angel, literally [1]
Category: K-pop, SuperM (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Angel Wings, Angst with a Happy Ending, Asian Writer, Blood and Injury, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Character Death, Religious Discussion, Torture, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27080353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Claw512/pseuds/Claw512
Summary: Lucas is an angel tasked with the protection of young, vulnerable human children. One day, while trying to make a pact with a demon, he was captured and brought to hell. Faced with the eternal darkness of his prison and an endless parade of demons who came to laugh at him, Lucas's only saving grace was the memories of his lover.Is anyone coming for him?Whumptober 2020, a concoction of prompts
Relationships: Lee Taemin/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Series: Lucas is an angel, literally [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980280
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34





	your people shall be my people, and your God my God

**Author's Note:**

> Hmm considering this pairing is new and there isn't even much content, I've wanted to start with something short and light, maybe some mutual pining, misunderstanding to make it easier to read. But somehow I came up with this instead...
> 
> Don't worry though if this goes well I'll do that mutual pining fic. Also maybe flower shop AU? It's my fav trope and SuperM's As We Wish had really knocked me over. Did you see how Lucas was holding onto Taemin's wrist? The cutest.
> 
> Unbeta-ed. Title taken from Ruth 1:16

The room perpetually smells like sulphur dioxide, like there’s someone sitting in the corner continuously lighting matches. Lucas knew this was just what Hell always smells like, but he couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose at the potency of it. Still, it wasn’t enough to block out the tangy odour of blood that got stronger with each wound on his body.

The male demon smirked and drove the knife deeper into the space between his ribs. Lucas swung his head to the side and bit down on his lower lip, barely managed to keep in his groan of pain. The demon’s hands left the engraved handle of the knife as it stepped back, leaving the blade where it was. The reflection of the nearby flame danced in its onyx eyes as it looked at him. Lowest rank demons had black eyes. Under normal circumstances, Lucas wouldn’t even need to break a sweat to kill them, but room the was covered wall to ceiling in angel-proof warding that severed the connection between his Grace and heaven. The demon looked ugly as, well, hell under the dingy orange light. Its wings were raised high in the air, vibrating in excitement.

“You look really great, angel.” The demon chuckled. “Much better than when we first brought you here.”

Lucas hadn’t been able to look at himself for days, but he was sure he looked as far from great as one could possibly look. He had spent all his time in this hole being chained to the ceiling by his wrists in one standing position, forced to wait for the demons to come and torture him in all the ways they could think of. He couldn’t die, not by their hands, anyway, so they didn’t even have to think about going easy on him. Not that they wanted to. It would be impossible to stay looking good in this circumstance, no matter how beautiful he is.

[“Nonsense,” Taemin laughed, “you’re always cute, Lucas.”]

Lucas wondered how Taemin was doing, if he was worried about Lucas missing their meeting. Lucas had ever missed a chance to see him. His existence was always something that brightened up the angel’s day no matter what, even since before he had known about Lucas’ existence.

The demon came closer again. Another knife. Screw whoever taught these fiends how to smith, Lucas thought. The demon pressed the pointy tip into the hollow of Lucas’s throat, and ran it shallowly down to his collarbones, his chest, his stomach, drawing blood in its wake like a strip tease version of an autopsy incision. This time, when the demon twisted the knife in, Lucas only grunted. His hands flexed and tried to curl into fists by instinct, but they were numb and stiff from being constantly raised over his head for the past few days.

[Taemin likes his hands.

Taemin liked holding hands when they watched movies together. He would throw Lucas’s arm around himself, laced their fingers together, then held on to Lucas’s hand on his belly. He liked holdings hands as they walked on the street, not caring about whatever look they might get from strangers passing by. He liked holding hands during mealtime prayers, when he took both of Lucas’s hands in his and bowed his head. Lucas should be praying too, since he was, after all, an angel, but he merely looked at the hair whorl that stuck up on the top of Taemin’s head, and the way his hands barely covered the back of Lucas’s own.

Lucas could spend hours holding and playing with Taemin’s hands if Taemin let him. Unlike Lucas’s, which were rough and tough like he had done hard labour all his life, Taemin’s hands were soft, baby soft even, to the point of almost being squishy. His fingers were very flexible, which Lucas could bend back and forth like they were boneless. Taemin’s palms were always just the right temperature, slightly cool in the hot weather, warm in the cold. And his slender wrists fit perfectly in Lucas’s hold.]

The female demon had been stroking the feathers on the underside of Lucas’s wings for a while. There was an almost insultingly fond look on her face, like she was patting a pet dog. She was leaning against him, chin resting on his shoulder in a mockingly intimate gesture. All he could see was the top of her right wing, black and bigger than most demons’, folded neatly behind her. Her breath fanned the side of his neck, cool in comparison to the high temperature of hell. Even though it disgusted him, Lucas held himself still.

Lucas had never truly hated demon. He disliked their slimy, duplicitous nature, but he didn’t despise them the way his brothers and sisters did. Some angels would smite any demon they happened to cross path; some went out of their way to do it. It wasn’t entirely without reason. Because they wanted to populate hell to rival with heaven, demons corrupted, deceived, and pulled human out of the righteous path God had intended for them. But Lucas had met demons who wanted to stop their own kind’s path of destruction, those who wanted to ally with him, even befriended a few. Maybe that was why, after they had picked him specifically to string up like a roasted duck at the front of a restaurant, he still felt more pity than hate towards God’s disgraced creations.

“Your wings are so pretty.” The female demon cooed. And the most offensive thing was he knew she was being sincere. She genuinely liked them. But to demons, even love can be such a twisted thing. The demon’s fingers sunk into his feathers. Unlike the others, who usually liked to watch his face, this one didn’t bother. She grabbed a fistful of the appendages and tore them off his wings.

[“They’re all scruffy again.” Taemin tutted softly as he sat down behind Lucas. Picking up the remote control on the table, he turned the television on and chose the first horror movie that appeared on the suggestion menu. Lucas tilted his head at the screen. The movie distracted him, and it wasn’t until Taemin tapped his right wing that the angel remembered to extend it.

When Taemin combed his fingers into the feathers, the angel leaned his head back and hummed. If he could purr, he would probably be doing that. Taemin’s delicate fingers worked out the tangles carefully. He smoothed down the little feathers that had become dishevelled and straightened the tousled barbules on the primary feathers. He liked these the most, always spent the extra time to make sure they look proper and even. On tv, a girl screamed at the blood dripping out from the wall. Lucas’s eyes widened slightly. He still wasn’t sure why human found such a deeply uncomfortable thing entertaining.

“So magnificent.” Taemin sighed dreamily, not caring about the gruesome scene in front of him.

“Haven’t seen them around much, have you?” Lucas said teasingly, to which Taemin huffed.

“Forgive me for not running into angels after angels, living on planet earth.” Taemin tugged on the feathers playfully, mindful of the ones that were growing. Lucas was in the middle of his moulting period, which made his wings extra sensitive. But he didn’t mind Taemin’s touch at all.]

The angel inhaled sharply. He had tried to suppress his instinct to shake his wings, but they still trembled uncontrollably. The motion pulled on the chains that were hooked into their forearm and bicep muscles, sending waves after waves of pain down his spine. Sweat broke out and rolled down his forehead, making his hair stuck to his skin even more. He had always taken pride in how well-kept his wings were, which made their current state of looking like something fresh out of one of those horror movies that Taemin loved extra painful. He couldn’t see them, but some of the feathers must have been singed black from the flame. The long feathers had been pulled out and broken so many times he wasn’t even sure what shape they took anymore. The new ones couldn’t escape the fate either, bent and snapped beyond help. The demons had intentionally left them in, so they continued to hurt and bleed.

_Once I saw a little bird_

_Go hop, hop, hop,_

_So I said: – little bird,_

_Will you stop, stop, stop?_

The female demon singsonged under her breath. It was obvious that she knew this song from stalking some poor child who must have sung it a lot. Smiling, she reached under his wing to catch the blood that was dripping to the floor. The gall, Lucas thought, a demon, touching the sacred blood of an angel with its bare hand. No, not just touching, she was soaking her hand in his blood, even rubbing against the feathers to get more. He twisted himself away in disgust, which resulted in nothing but more pain. Meanwhile, in an almost childlike giddiness, the demon slapped her hand against his wings and smeared the blood on his feathers while giggling to herself.

His face burnt with humiliation.

[“Lucas, look up.”

“Don’t wanna.”

“Come on, look at me.”

“No, hyung, stop it.”

Taemin was cackling evilly. Lucas couldn’t see it because he was hiding his face in his arms, but he could hear it.

“Come on, or I’ll do it again.”

“No.” Lucas said, and he meant ‘no, please don’t do it again’. Taemin took it as ‘no, I’m not looking up’ on purpose, and he, in the most faux sweet voice possible, repeated the words that had made Lucas’s face turn as red as a tomato:

“Lucas hyuuuuung, pleaaaaase.”

“Aaaaaaahhh I hate you hyung.” Lucas screeched, to which Taemin only laughed louder.]

Life in hell was, well, hell. Every day was the same to Lucas. Blood, flame, more blood, more flame. Being kept in isolation, the demons were his only company, but after a while, their faces all started to blur together, too.

Among everything, his memories of Taemin were the only thing keeping him afloat.

The male demon grabbed his hair and pulled his head up. Lucas winced. It wanted him to look at it, perhaps, except the blood running into his eyes had made everything fuzzy. All he could make out were the dark shadow of its massive webbed wings and the golden gleam of its eyes. It must be the commander of this place.

One rank above regular demons are the yellow-eyed demons. These are generally more powerful, but they still wouldn’t pose a problem for an angel like Lucas. Among those that were originally human, only demons with red eyes could match an angel in strength. They were the first corrupted, the generals who rarely ever showed their faces or even left hell. And there were very few of them. Although, the ones created by God, the white-eyed, were even more elusive.

“Look at you.” The yellow-eyed demon said in a low, husky voice. “What a predicament you’ve gotten yourself into, angel.”

“What... do you want?” The angel asked. He had asked this question perhaps a thousand times, to so many demons he had lost count. If he had known what they were keeping him here for, he could lie, make up something, pretend to cooperate to get away. But the demons wanted nothing, nothing but his suffering.

“Still haven’t figured it out, little bird?” The demon snickered. “Of course what we want is you.”

Lucas pressed his lips together. He didn’t know why he bothered. Demons lied as often as human breathed, and tormenting was the only thing they enjoyed in this world.

To his surprise, the demon continued.

“What we want, is for you to join us.”

Lucas laughed, even though it hurt to do so.

“Is it really so inconceivable? After all, you’re still here.” The demon’s grip in his hair tightened. It was possible he was agitated by Lucas’s dismissal, but more likely he just wanted to inflict more pain. “It’s not like anyone’s in a hurry to get you out, is it?”

The blurry blob that was the demon moved closer. 

“Haven’t you been thrown away already, Lucas?” The demon breathed directly into his ears. “An angel and a mortal. It was quite the scandal, wasn’t it?”

[Lucas, being an angel, was spared from the ancient question that had plagued mortals for many centuries: what is the purpose of life? He knew what his purpose was. Along with being a soldier of the Lord, he was born to protect and nurture the spirit of young human. It was a mission he carried out with great attentiveness and pride.

There was a fifteen-year-old girl whose dad beat her whenever he was drunk. Hyejin. She was brought to one of the protective care agencies in Incheon in poor condition, both physically and mentally. Lucas’s job was to maintain the girl’s will to live until her soul healed enough to do it on its own. It was one of the easier missions. He had had to hold the tattered souls of hurt children in his hands and stitch them back with his own Grace. With Hyejin, all the needed to do was to be around her. One night, the angel visited his ward to find her huddling under a pretend tent made out of bedspreads and pillows. The muffled giggles that transferred out from under the cotton layers told Lucas that his mission had finished much sooner than expected. Curious, he peered through the materials to see the girl and a strange man, whose name he would later find out was Taemin, reading fairy tales to each other with a small torchlight.

He kept running into Taemin afterwards, whose presence had a light, comforting influence on the children. With him around, it seemed Lucas barely even had to do anything before the kids recovered. Little by little, the angel started looking forward to seeing him. Not always was Lucas assigned the child Taemin spent time with, but his wards often stayed at the same agency.

It would be one of those times when he finally revealed himself.

The kid died.

Human children weren’t always given a protector. Sometimes, they were assigned a guide instead, who would accompany them to heaven. Lucas knew that the kid who stayed in the room next to his ward’s would die, what he didn’t know, was that Taemin would be there, crying into her blanket like she was his own. The angel had never seen him so upset, and his instinct as a protector could not let him ignore the anguish pouring out of the kind man.

He materialised behind Taemin, who whipped around almost immediately. The tails of his eyes were dyed pink by tears, so was the tip of his elegant nose, and his lips were trembling. He stared at Lucas in shock, not quite sure where he had come from. Lucas was glad for his wise decision to hide the wings.

“Hi.” Lucas started first. “I know this is strange, but I heard you crying from the hallway and I just want to comfort you.”

“You...” Taemin hesitated. “Who are you? Do you work here?”

“My name is Lucas, and yes, I do.” _Technically_ , Lucas thought but didn’t say out loud. “Don’t worry about her, she’s already on her way to a better place.”

Truth usually did little to comfort people. Taemin looked down at the kid, and fresh tears gathered in his eyes. Lucas slowly approached him. The angel considered what he could do. Usually, he would put one of his wings around the person/angel he wanted to comfort, but that wasn’t an option right now. Instead, he held out his arm and asked: “May I...?”

Taemin leaned back minutely and Lucas took that as the permission to drape an arm over his shoulders. He didn’t cry anymore, just sniffled quietly occasionally. Lucas shushed him gently: “There, there.”

The angel stood there until the man next to him had calmed down completely. Taemin hurriedly wiped his face with his sleeves. It seemed he got shy all of a sudden. He couldn’t look straight at Lucas when he said: “Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Lucas answered.

Lucas divulged that he was an angel after they had met a few more times. (Exactly seven times, actually, Lucas counted). Taemin was shocked, but he took it well, no screaming or fainting. He couldn’t look away from Lucas’s wings for a good couple of minutes, but the angel supposed it was a normal reaction. He didn’t ask to touch the wings until much later, not before they had become closer and he was sure it wasn’t offensive to do so.

By that time, Lucas was already pretty sure he was in love with Taemin.

His siblings did not approve.

It came as no surprise at all when Gabriel paid him a visit. His brother’s magnificent six wings took up the entirety of the bedroom of Lucas’s ward. Lucas usually stared at them slack-jawed in awe, but today he was too nervous about the Archangel’s appearance to even look at them. Gabriel, being the messenger of God, had a perpetual calm and serene expression on his face. He regarded Lucas the same way he regarded all angels, with all the gentleness of a superior older brother. The Archangel smiled sweetly at Lucas, and in a fond but stern voice like he was reprimanding a child, relayed the message from Lucas’s other older siblings, that the angel needed to stop his fascination before he angered God, and, it wasn’t said but Lucas knew enough to understand, Michael.

Like the good little soldier that he was, Lucas could only bow and say yes.

Lucas wasn’t sure if he was going to go through with it.

He should. He better. He had never disobeyed his siblings. But there was something about Taemin and the sunshine happiness that radiated from him that gave Lucas pause. All Lucas had ever wanted to do was to make people happy. If he followed his brother’s command...

In the end, Taemin threw everything into the wind by pulling Lucas down by the collar and asking him, with eyes half-lidded and their lips a mere centimetre apart, if he wanted to kiss him now.

When they parted a few moments later, Taemin settled back on his heels and looked up through his bang into Lucas’s eyes, with a look Lucas had come to realise reserved for him alone. His lips were slightly swollen and damp, red with desire, and Lucas was helpless against his need to capture them again. This time, he held Taemin securely in his arms while his wings covered them both, shielding them from the eyes of heaven, even though Lucas knew without a doubt his fate was already sealed. But, as Taemin threw his arms around Lucas’ shoulders, the angel decided that he was worth whatever the punishment his brothers decided would come his way.]

“Maybe it was,” the memory pulled at the corner of Lucas’s lips, forming a smile.

“See? Aren’t we the same, Lucas?” The demon concluded with satisfaction. He let go of his hair and patted the strands down condescendingly.

“Isn’t it much more fun this way? You can do whatever you want. And no one,” the demon pointed at the ceiling, or at least that was what it kind of looked like to Lucas, “no one can define you or your destiny.”

[Taemin swiped some icing off a cake and poked Lucas in the nostrils with his fingers.]

“No, man,” Lucas shook his head. “Perhaps the fact that I’ve fallen out of grace with the angel makes us more similar now, but we’ve always been the same. Whatever we do, however we might choose to do it, in the end, we are all servants of God who wander the realms to fulfill the role He had chosen for us.”

There was no warning before the demon slammed something hard and heavy into the side of his head, snapping it to the side with the force of the blow. Had he been human, his skull would have probably exploded. As it was, blood spurted out from his ears and nose in addition to the blood already running down his face. When Lucas opened his eyes again, vague shadows and weak light was all that he could see.

“Do not say that we are alike when you haven’t gotten your head out of your arse about _God_ , angel, for _I_ have free will.” The demon growled.

Something fell to the ground with a solid thud.

“What a shame. I had thought you had some balls.”

Lucas spat out a mouthful of blood.

[Taemin sat next to the campfire, his eyes big and dark against the bright dancing flame.]

“It’s not about having free will or not." He grunted. It was hard to speak after the wind was knocked out of him, but he continued. "It’s about playing your part so that this world could continue to exist in harmony like God intended.”

“Shut up.” The demon shouted. Suddenly, his fuzzy shape disappeared. Half a second later, he was behind Lucas, one hand on his back between the bases of his wings.

“I was going to wait patiently for your fall.” The demon said, voice low. “But perhaps you need a little help after all.”

For the first time since he was brought to Hell against his will, in the presence of a demon, Lucas closed his eyes.

[He didn’t fall.

He hadn’t imagined that he would, either. Love wasn’t a sin, wasn’t against the Commandments, so he wouldn’t ‘fall’ because of it. Still, it came as a mild surprise when he opened his eyes to see white feathers partially obscured Taemin’s peaceful sleeping face where he had nestled into one of Lucas’s wings. What was more expected, however, was the empty space in his mind, where the presences of his siblings had previously occupied.

Lucas closed his eyes and tried to control the tears. The silence hurt his head. His Grace tried to reach out for something that had left for good to no avail. All angels become aware of the existence of their siblings since birth. Lucas had never had to feel so overwhelmingly alone in his long life.

The tear that was rolling across the bridge of his nose was brushed away gently. Then, warm hands cradled his face. Lucas exhaled shakily.

“Lucas-ah, what’s wrong?” Taemin asked.

The angel shook his head. “Nothing, hyung.”

How could he put the burden of such a thing on Taemin?

Taemin was quiet for a while, then he softly said: “Okay, baby.”

He shuffled closer (it hurt when he put pressure on Lucas’s wing, but Lucas didn’t complain) and touched his forehead to Lucas’s. He slowly hummed a song that Lucas knew his ex-boyfriend, now one of his best friends, wrote for him. Lucas liked that song.

“I’m here, baby.” He said simply. “I’m here.”]

It fucking hurt.

Lucas had never known pain like this, despite the millenniums that he had lived and all the wars that he had fourth in the name of God. He couldn’t breathe properly, couldn’t open his eyes, could barely hear anything over the ringing in his ears. He had screamed until his throat bled and his voice gave out and barely even felt any of it.

The demons had pinned him face down on the ground by hammering two huge, long nails through his palms into the igneous rock below. The nails were soaked in demon blood, which burned like, well, hell. His wings, crushed and broken, lied on two different sides of the room, far away from him. The feathers on the side that touched the floor had been burnt into ashes, and the rest was a mess of black and red with blotches of white. The humerus bones of the wings were still sticking out of his back.

Lucas could tell there were more than one demon in the room judging by the way they were murmuring to each other, but just barely. He wasn’t fully conscious. As a matter of fact, he had been floating in the space between consciousness and unconsciousness for a while. His head felt unusually hot and foggy at the same time his body was wracked with chills.

So delirious was Lucas that he didn’t register the explosion that shook the chamber, and indeed this entire level of hell. He didn’t know about the shoutings outside either. Some of demons left the room in a hurry, but two stayed behind to watch him. They made noises that sounded like buzzing to his ears. Then, there was a loud noise, followed by a gasp.

“You? Why... you...” 

“Baek...”

“GET HIM.”

The next thing Lucas knew, there was cold air on his skin. He shivered, having not been exposed to anything but the heat of hell for quite some time. Something warm and thick was then put on him. Somehow, his back hurt a lot less. Lucas knew this presence.

“Si...” He began to say but was shushed and silenced by a finger being placed on his lips. Then everything that followed was disjointed. He could hear people talking but could only register some words that hardly meant anything.

“Where...?”

“…Here.”

“Oppa? Oh god.”

“My grandson’s room...”

The noises faded away.

[“You... didn’t believe in God?”

“Well, not in that way.” Lucas wrinkled his nose. “Not in like ‘I don’t believe in such a thing as God’, but more like ‘I don’t believe that He is watching’.”

“Lucas,” Taemin laughed, “isn’t that the same thing?”

He leaned back against Lucas’s chest, which meant Lucas just had to kiss him on the side of his head. His hair was soft and still slightly damp from the shower. Lucas kissed his temple too, just because. Then he turned to face Lucas with a smile, so the angel kissed his smile next. Taemin tasted of the honey lip balm he bought from the convenient store downstairs, and the pomegranate he always insisted to eat seed by seed.

“I have never met God,” Lucas said when the moment ended. “Beside the Archangels, none of us has.”

Taemin looked at him.

“Michael told us that God is always watching, so we live almost in fear of displeasing Him with our action, so scared of doing anything that isn’t in the rule book, wrong or right. It’s always about strictly following the guideline. Don’t do more, or less. Don’t try to understand, or innovate, or learn. It is all unnecessary.”

As their fingers were entwined back to palm, Taemin squeezed Lucas’s hand and pulled both of theirs closer to his stomach. The intimate warmth of his body was reassuring.

“It’s understandable, Lucas-ah.” Taemin said, “your siblings just want to help you avoid making mistakes. You’re angels. Unlike human whose lives are as short as mayflies’, and just as inconsequential, your mistake can easily ricochet through all the realms and throw everything off balance.”

“I know, it’s just...” Lucas’s gaze wandered to the window. Night sky in Seoul never went properly dark, like Gabriel’s unwavering gaze and the way his big brother always seemed both caring and cold at the same time.

“It’s just I refused to think that God is just a list of regulations, hyung.”

“I know,” Taemin nodded.

Lucas used the one arm he had around Taemin to hug him tighter.

“I used to struggle with what I believed and what I was supposed to believe...” he said into Taemin’s hair, “what is God, and what isn’t God. And then..."

Taemin's brown eyes were on him, so sweet and warm. Lucas had never been surer about anything else. "And then He guided me to you.”]

“Right, please keep your hands there.”

“Alright, but please do know that I can and will neutralise you if you try anything.”

“Don’t worry I don’t expect anything less.”

There was pressure being put on Lucas’s wings. It didn’t hurt. He felt kind of good, actually, albeit a little loopy and floaty. Then someone suddenly started touching them directly. The sensation was... strange somehow. Not like how it usually felt when his wings came into contact with things. Confused, he opened his eyes, but the world seemed too narrow and too out of focus. Lucas twitched. On the wall in front of him, clearer than anything else, was the dark shadow of a pair of webbed wings.

A faint “No,” escaped his lips. He tried to move away. “Don’t.”

“Sssssh, it’s okay, Lucas. It’s okay. Hey, don’t just stand there.”

“On it.”

They started petting his hair. He recognised that hand, maybe. They shushed him a little more, like they were trying to stop a baby from crying.

“There...” The voice sounded faraway. “...should feel better.”

He lost consciousness again.

(This wasn’t a memory.

This was something that happened when Lucas and Taemin were both asleep. Or maybe it didn’t happen, because it wasn’t an event, and nothing occurred but an angel and his affection just existing. Lucas didn’t need to sleep, but he did sometimes when the silence in his head became too overwhelming. He liked holding Taemin as they both drifted off, and it was rather lucky that Taemin didn’t mind. The angel still had one arm around his lover over the blanket, while Taemin snuggled into his chest, head tucked into the space under his chin. Some nights Lucas would drape a wing on Taemin too if he was feeling extra protective and cuddly, but more often he tucked them close to his body. Warm and safe, none of them would move an inch until whenever it was they decided to wake up.)

Lucas opened his eyes.

Taemin’s silvery grey hair filled his vision. Lucas blinked slowly in confusion. When did he change it? Ah, no matter, Lucas liked it regardless. The soft bounciness that the light colour brought to his hair made Lucas want to pet him. The angel raised his hand to touch Taemin’s head.

The huge healing wound on his palm halted his action. Lucas brought his hand closer to his eyes. He looked at the pink flesh dazedly for a second, and remembered everything.

Startled, the angel reached back to feel his wings, even though he already knew they wouldn’t be there. The sudden motion jolted Taemin, whose eyes flung open. He looked up. His eyes found Lucas’s in an instance and it was like that one gaze alone righted Lucas’s world. Not even one second passed before Taemin reached up to throw his arm around Lucas’s shoulder.

“Lucas.” Taemin called, and Lucas could feel the heaviness that had weighted his slender frame lifted with that exhale. “Lucas.”

“Hyung.” Lucas replied. He returned the hug with as much eagerness as he could muster and breathed in the heady scent that rose from Taemin’s warm skin. “Hyung, I miss you.”

“I know.” Taemin laughed. Lucas had missed this too.

He wanted to see Taemin’s face. Usually, Taemin granted his wish easily, but today it took some convincing before he would let go of Lucas. His face was a little puffy, and his eyes were swollen. He looked as tired as Lucas felt.

Lucas greedily drank all of him in.

“Hyung...” He brushed Taemin’s hair away from his face in an almost anxious attempt to _see_ him. “Hyung... how?”

“Ah... your siblings came.” Taemin held his hand, stilling the motion, but he kept it on the side of his face. “Ten and WinWin and... uh... is it Henry? He pretty much left right away. I think some emergency came up.”

“Hendery.” Lucas smiled, both at the cute way Taemin said the name and the fact his fellow nestlings came for him.

“Right, sorry. They all went back to heaven though.”

“Yeah, they can’t stay long.” Lucas agreed.

“That’s what they said, too.” Taemin laughed again. It was such a magical sound. “They said to tell you they all wanted to come but someone needed to stay back to distract the Archangels.”

“Hyung,” Lucas asked curiously. “Can I see?”

Taemin nodded. He leaned forwards so their foreheads touched.

{They were all running. They could have flown, but the angels wanted to lay low since they were doing this without permission. Taemin had to hold onto Ten’s sleeve so he wouldn’t fall behind. He should stay concentrated, but every now and then he couldn’t help glancing over to Lucas, who was being carried in WinWin’s arms. He had started trembling as soon as they got out of hell, so Winwin curled one wing in front to cover him up. Taemin couldn’t imagine it would be easy to run like that, but WinWin didn’t seem to notice.

“How is he?” Ten came up right next to WinWin. Taemin peered over his shoulder at the unconscious angel.

“The same.” WinWin answered.

Lucas groaned slightly then, and all their jaws immediately audibly clicked shut. He turned towards WinWin, eyes still closed, and mumbled.

“Si...”

Ten reached over and put a finger on his lips, silencing him. “Not here, Lucas. You blabbermouth.”

“Been in hell for a wink and already ready to give out angel names like feathers.” WinWin looked like he was of half a mind to drop Lucas where he was, but he just laughed.

“Where is the place, Lee Taemin-ssi?” Ten asked. “Are we close?”

“It’s just around the corner.” Taemin answered. Lucas had gone quiet again.

The lady opened the door after the second knock. Her eyes went wide upon seeing all of them, probably having not expected so many people.

“Oppa.” She gasped, “What... oh God... what happened? Who is this?”

Taemin was standing in front, but he could feel the vibration in the air caused by the full body flinch from the two angels behind him. Virgins, he thought.

“Sorry, could we borrow a room?”

“Yes, of course. Let me get you to the inner house.”

Without further question, she opened the door wide and let Taemin and three virtual strangers in. Ten casted a curious look at her and Taemin as she led them through a hallway to a different section of the house.

“Here. My grandson has gone to the city to study. No one’s using this area right now.”

“Thank you.” Taemin clasped her hands tightly in his. Behind him, WinWin laid Lucas down on the floor. He didn’t think he should tell her Ten would be dragging the pyeong-sang inside as soon as her back was turned. There was only so much one person could take in in one night.

“Don’t worry about it, oppa, call me if you need anything.”}

It was good seeing them again, even if just through Taemin’s memories. Lucas could feel the soothing touch of WinWin’s Grace that still lingered on his and the cheeky brush of Ten’s own. He missed the rest of them so much, but he understood why they couldn’t make it. He just hoped they wouldn’t get into too much trouble with the Archangels.

For now, the longing in his chest eased.

“How did they know where to find you?” Lucas asked. “I took great measures to hide my track.”

“You did,” Taemin stroked Lucas’s hair tenderly, mirroring what the angel had done earlier. “Apparently they tried to look for me the second you failed to report back but couldn’t. They only found me after my failed attempt to summon you.”

“Shouldn’t have done it.” Lucas muttered. The angels certainly didn’t like Taemin, not even his fellow nestlings (possibly especially not them). He didn’t need the extra danger. The summoning ritual itself was already risky enough.

“Should have done it sooner.” Taemin corrected him. “I was able to locate you thanks to them”

Lucas sighed. He felt so comfy, even though underneath him was just a mattress laid out on a mat-covered floor. He thought about the old woman in Taemin’s memories.

“You keep in contact with her?” He asked, eyes drifting close.

“Hyejin? Of course, she’s special.” Taemin caressed his cheek. “Oh, baby, you’re falling asleep.”

“Tired.” Lucas mumbled. His Grace was on overdrive to heal his body and mind, and it wore him out; even doing something as simple as mind reading pushed him over the edge.

“Of course, you must be so exhausted.” Taemin tutted. “Sleep.”

He should, but he had one last question.

“Hyung,” he sleepily drawled, “what happened to the demons?”

Taemin’s pupils elongated. The black of his irises receded into the centre and was replaced by a brilliant vermillion colour. When he talked next, his mouth was full of white, pointy teeth.

“Don’t you worry, baby,” he pronounced every word clearly, slowly, “they won’t be trying anything for a long time.”

[“Did your dad ever punish you in any way that hurt your body? Make you bleed?”

Taemin asked the boy, who glanced back at him and Lucas nervously. Lucas smiled encouragingly at him. The boy looked down to his lap and nodded.

“You poor thing.” Taemin clicked his tongue. He patted the boy’s chubby cheek gently. “It’s okay now. He can’t do it anymore.”

“I didn’t get daddy into troubles, right?” The boy asked without looking up.

“No, not at all.” Taemin smiled and stood up. “You’ve been very good. Get some sleep now, okay?”

Taemin tucked the boy into bed, and then one small gesture from Lucas sent him into dreamland. Since Lucas’s mission with him had finished earlier that day, he would wake up tomorrow not remembering the angel at all.

Lucas left the room to Taemin burning a piece of paper on his hand in the hallway. The black flame dancing on his fingers made the scene both creepy and impressive at the same time.

“Already?” He asked.

“The underlings have been itching for some action.” Taemin smirked.

Lucas stepped up next to him. He chanced a look at Taemin’s free hand, wanting to take hold of it, but all he did was rubbing his fingers against his palm until the urge went away.

Taemin turned to him, oblivious. “Want to stay for dinner?”

Lucas nodded.

Later, Lucas watched as Taemin washed the dishes. He had gone a little overboard with the soap; there was bubble everywhere.

“Hyung.”

“Hm?”

“The other demons don’t mind you helping humans?”

Taemin put a plate into the ‘washed’ side of the sink. It nearly slipped out of his hand, but he caught it again just in time.

“Probably do, but I figure they figure it’s better for their health if they keep their traps shut.”

Lucas spluttered out a laugh. “You are weird.”

Taemin laughed right along with him.

“I’m just doing what God wanted me to do.” He said. “It is our job to make sure people who had done bad deeds get their due punishment. And I think there’s enough of them in the world that we don’t have to ‘make’ more.”

“What about helping the kids?” Lucas asked.

“Well,” Taemin wrung some water out of the sponge he was holding, “it’s my initiative, but it’s not like God will mind.”

“It’s kinda strange that you believe in Him this way. Are there other demons who do that?”

“A few.” Taemin shrugged. “But even if they didn’t, they had other reasons to want to fulfill their roles.”

They fell into a contemplative but comfortable silence as the red-eyed demon continued washing dishes. Lucas looked at his slender frame from behind and thought about God.]

Taemin watched as Lucas slept.

He slept like he had been sedated, and Taemin suspected that he wouldn’t wake up even if Taemin tried to rouse him. The demon brushed a stray hair away from Lucas’s forehead, and snickered quietly at the way the angel’s lips seemed even more pouty in sleep. He looked much better now, not quite back to the way he was before yet, but colour had returned to his cheeks, which had started to fill out again.

It was heart wrenching seeing Lucas so frail and weak when they first brought him out of hell, then the way he was freaked out by Taemin’s wings when they were trying to remove the last broken pieces of his own. Taemin hadn’t wanted to remember the two large gashes that had remained on Lucas’s back, but he would keep the image with him forever, a reminder of what could happen if he was ever not careful again.

Although, seeing the shock that was quickly replaced by fear on the faces of Baekhyun and his battalion when a red-eyed demon barged into their corner in hell, in all the glory monstrousity of his true form, with two angels following behind, was satisfying; draining them of demon power and throwing them into a prison on earth even more so. It would take decades for them to recover. Until then, they could stay there and think about what they'd done.

The three angels that had shown up... They didn’t trust Taemin at all, yet he was impressed by the way they tried to, for Lucas. They even listened to his commands well. Taemin knew there were three other nestlings. He wondered if he would be able to meet them in the future, preferably under less stressful circumstances. Lucas had said his nestlings were all hatched around the same time, but Taemin could tell from the feel of their Graces that Ten was slightly older. Taemin didn’t know why, but he had felt a strong pull towards Ten. Perhaps it was the way the angel had stayed for an extra second to ask Taemin to protect Lucas, despite knowing that the later he returned to heaven, the more likely they would all be punished. Perhaps it was because of how young they all were, the few angels to have been born after Taemin had become a demon.

Lucas hadn’t told him that he had been cut off from his siblings. Taemin had guessed that he would have to face some consequences for being involved with a demon, but he hadn’t expected it to be quite so cruel. Archangels, he sighed, the bunch of overreacting drama queens.

“Naughty boy,” Taemin said, tapping the tip of Lucas’s nose lightly, “hiding this from me.”

Like he had expected, Lucas didn’t even stir. Emboldened, Taemin wiggled closer and hugged the angel’s head to his chest.

“You have to heal well, okay?” He reprimanded his lover fondly. “I have things to say to you about this, silly angel.”

Taemin’s four wings unfurled from behind him. Unlike angel wings, which lacked the flexibility, his could wrap tightly around them to make a little cocoon. The fact he had four of them meant that Lucas’s feet didn’t have to stick out.

“Rest, Yuk Hei ah.” Taemin whispered into the angel’s ear. “When you wake, I’ll be here.”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Turn Back Time MV and Taemin's Soldier
> 
> There's a short epilogue that's coming in a week or two :) stay tuned (if you like this of course)


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